Highlights - Tyler Cowen Podcast MR Comments

Housekeeping: if you’re in the DC area, consider registered to attend our AI meetup on October 3rd, and our general meetup on October 12th.

Tyler Cowen reposted our podcast on Marginal Revolution:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/09/my-podcast-with-brian-chau-2.html

In the podcast, Tyler asked for an autist to correct him about whether Parcheesi board games have gotten worse.

I think virtually every sector has more talent, other than things in obvious decline, like the Parcheesi board game. And I wouldn't even be shocked if some autist out there knew a lot about Parcheesi and somehow could show me it's gotten better in the last three years.

The autists delivered!

Two comments on the strengths or weaknesses of Cowen Coast Straussianism. Well, that’s not quite what they’re about.

I think the subtext of the last section of our interview, the section about talent shortages (or lack thereof) is that Tyler wants us to be more hopeful about people. I don’t find his answer to my question about talent arbitrages satisfying whatsoever. But I appreciate the underlying aesthetic point.

Nonetheless, I’m not so hopeful about people, for empirical, philosophical, and metaphysical reasons. I write about that in East Coast Straussian ways. I lay out the philosophical case in more detail in an essay that will be published some time in the next two months. The question about talent arbitrages actually gets to the heart of it: are societies made better by the attributes that people have in common, or the attributes that differentiate them? That should significantly impact views on talent and human nature.

There’s a long but fun conversation about whether AI does actually benefit Kenya. I agree with Tyler on this one. I think people don’t fully conceptualize what a talent shortage is. Talent shortages are the water we swim in, in that sense.